Domestic Cookery, Useful Receipts, and Hints to Young Housekeepers

Warner’s Cordial for Gout in the Stomach

Take one ounce of rhubarb, two drachms of senna, two of fennel seed, two of coriander seed, one of saffron, and one of liquorice; stone and cut half a pound of good raisins, and put all in a quart of good spirits; let it stand in a warm place for ten days, shaking it every day; then strain it off and add a pint more spirits to the same ingredients; when all the strength is extracted, strain it and mix the first and last together. Take from two to four spoonsful of this cordial in as much boiling water as will make it as hot as you can take it; if the pain is not removed in half an hour, repeat the dose, and if your stomach will not retain it, add ten drops of laudanum.

Dr. Warner remarks, “after twenty years’ experience of this medicine in myself and others, it is impossible for me to speak of it in terms higher than it deserves. When the vital parts are affected, persons subject to the gout should never sleep without it in their chamber.”